The term music industry designates the branch of industry, which produces music.

Term history

Originally what one could call pro ton of "“music industry"”, consisted of publishing houses, which bought the rights at their compositions from authors and as note sheets driven out. With the invention of Phonograph and Grammophon clay/tone carriers at meaning won into the 1890er years. On basis of patents on the hard and software Victor (late RCA record) and Columbia (late CBS record) establish a duo pole on the US music market. Starting from 1915 innumerable small labels are established.

Originally music industry was impressed as pure technical term for since the 1890er years by the introduction of the note role developing industrielle mass production of carrier media. The term at that time only referred to the economic procedures for production and the sales of music. In the course of the time the term was increasingly watered and partly replaced by synonymous terms such as music economy or "“Phonographi industry"”. To this watering in strong measure the English wrong friend contributed music industry, who translates correctly music industry reads (English industry = industry).

Thus the term covers today the talent search and the production of CDs (labels, press works and Studios), the advertisement and graduation (television, film, music video, broadcast, printed media, Internet and concerts), the selling and sales (retail trade, Webshops), the music publishing houses, copyright companies (BMI) and exploitation corporations (GEMA) up to the syndicates (IFPI).

Criticism

Already 1948 criticized the first scientific publication (Adorno/Horkheimer: "„Dialectic of the clearing-up "“) the commercialization of the culture industry ("„production of culture "“industrialized) and concomitantly the music industry: The art was squeezed into a stereotyped and standardized stand and robbed of so its creativity.

The development of the disk companies, also for labels mentioned, which represent a central position within the music industry, stand again and again in the criticism. This aims at the oligopoly of companies acting world-wide. If the overall economic structure of the labels is characterized in, the 50's and 60's 40's by a multiplicity of small labels, end of the 60's however already begins a concentration of the market shares on less and less labels (e.g. Virgin Group, Warner Bros. Record, Ariola). In such a way gained profits flow into a Merger &Aquisitionswelle. , Also labels the called developed from it major labels win ever larger influence on expirations of the branch of industry and beyond that.

A problem during the collection of the term "„music industry "“exists suspended firm's structures in the opacity of the accessible statistics and the complex, constant changes. So soft information often from each other off or the composition of statistics and numbers is not to be opened. In addition it comes that one is dependent on the public data of the music industry, which act however out of economically tactical calculation.

Current discussion

After a constant economic growth in the 1980er and 1990er the music industry came to years, caused v. A. also by the new format that CD and sinking production costs, after the thousands of years change into sales resistance.

Additionally to the generally bad economic situation critic of the music industry accuses among other things strategic misalignments and innovation strength lacking as explanation. On the part of the music industry however v. A. the increasing popularity of music exchange stock exchanges so mentioned is made responsible.

The argument around the value of the music exchange stock exchanges is the present quintessential point of the discussion.

The music industry must leave itself fallen the reproach in its fixingness on the medium CD the upswing of the Internets to have overslept. The possibility of new selling ways for the own products was not used. After futile attempts to complain the exchange stock exchanges from the market to one tries to correct meanwhile the misguided policy, as own liable to pay the costs offers in the Internet are platziert. Another new channel of distribution of the music industry are liable to pay the costs telephone bell tones.

Additionally the music industry provides CDs with copy protection; since these clay/tone carriers mentioned (by critic side "“Un-CDs"”) are not standard conformal, they do not function on all devices: above all portable devices, CD players for the car and PC drive assemblies often refuse the service. Many potenzielle buyers seem to feel deterred from the purchase by such mechanisms.

Also the adjustment on with ever larger budget equipped "“gecastete"” musicians did not redeem strategic expectations of the music industry not.

As the further reason for the crisis of the music industry in Germany it is stated that the private radios repeat and increasingly also the Popwellen of the pool of broadcasting corporations too many music titles on day (format radio). Those leads to a fast supersaturation of the listeners with current hits, so that they are held from the purchase of the clay/tone carriers. By the narrowing of the rotations many fewer well-known titles are played at the same time not or and thus not at all admit only rarely, what presses also on the sales figures off the Charts.

An inquiry of the computer journal c't to the topic digitally Rights management resulted in that straight those, which download music illegaly from the Internet spend also more money for the legal acquisition of clay/tone carriers (source: ). The thesis supports that free offers could energize customers to the purchase.

2003 were created with the Popakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg the first university in Germany, which trains Musikbusiness"” and "“Popmusikdesign"” with support of the Musikindustire, artist and manager oh stature in two courses of studies "“. The mechanism of the German Phonoakademie and promoted by that universal Music Group, beyond that inform lecturers practically all important enterprises from the music industry in Mannheim.

See also:

• Major label
• Independent label
• Produktpiraterie
• Copy protection
• Music publishing house
• Boosey & Hawkes
• Sony BMG
• Universal
• EMI

Literature

• Janko Mix, Burn & R. Ith P. - the end of the music industry, ISBN 3936931089, available under the Creative Commons license, see Web left

• Norman living right, When the Music stop: Manager, Maestros and the Corporate Murder OF Classical Music, Simon & shoemaker, 1996

• Yokes Haller, copyright protection in the music industry: An economic analysis, publishing house Josef Eul, 2005. ISBN 3-89936-352-3

Related links

• Mix, Burn & R.I.P. The end of the music industry
• Christian Imhorst, the "“lost generation"” of the music industry, available under the GFDL
• Popakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg

Articles in category "Music industry"

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